Nikishin Go Boom
Russian Bulldozer Consultent
- Jul 31, 2017
- 23,708
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which we will politely decline
Whats the goalie split this year looking like?
- Thread starter TopG
- Start date
Anton Dubinchuk
aho
Maybe, but like… depends on the price I guess.
I’m not sure on the general consensus of the boards but I think we’re still a long way away from any sort of proof of concept for Kochetkov as the goalie of the future. I like him and I think the contract is a good gamble but he’s far from untouchable.
Or, maybe a slightly different question, do we care about a goalie of the future at all? Since Rod Brind’Amour took over we are batting 1.000 when it comes to rando journeymen coming in and being relatively successful. Who’s the Freddie Andersen of the 2025 offseason? Maybe we just keep playing the game we’ve successfully played for the last 5 years and don’t care all that much about a “franchise” goalie anyway. If someone wants to give us something meaningful for him, I think we listen.
The Wolves can't be trusted to actually play Kochetkov anyway. They will sign some 28 year old AAAA starter who they can promote in the Chicago area, know he will be there all season, and play him regularly because he's "their guy."
It would need to be more than "something meaningful."
Worst-case scenario is Carolina has 3 years of locked in backup/1B goalie at $2M, which is a reasonable price. Raanta signed for $2M as a UFA, and I doubt they find another $2M goalie as good as Raanta (or Kochetkov) at that price. And with the cap going up, finding a veteran goalie who wants to play in a platoon and will sign for $2M will only get harder.
Anton Dubinchuk
aho
Lol, tell me what you think I meant by “something meaningful” and then we can meaningfully proceed. I’m not saying trade him for a 3rd.
More than Tampa's 2025 second or 2026 first, which are the next picks they have available in those rounds.
Hot take: I don't think I'd make the deal right now for the Tanner Jeannot return.
Anton Dubinchuk
aho
Cardiac Jerks
Asinine & immoral
Of course, I was livid the Canes traded Ned for very little when he would be at worst a backup/tandem for 2 more years. And I hated the Andersen signing.
So maybe I can't be trusted on goalie evaluation.
cptjeff
Reprehensible User
Andersen was a far, far cry from a "random journeyman". He was an established elite stud who had one bad year while still recovering from a severe knee injury, which led Toronto fans to act like he was Scott Darling or something. Undervalued when his contract expired so we picked him up, but he was a guy with one of the best pedigrees in the league. We got lucky that he was available off a down year, guys with that pedigree don't hit the market often. Otherwise we would have been rolling with Mrazek again, and while he's fun, it ain't the same.
And personally, I think we should run with Andersen until he's done. But we care about a goalie of the future because he's 34, and 'done' could be 35 or it could be 43, and we just don't know.
Anton Dubinchuk
aho
Agreed. But remember we signed Andersen right after we traded away our previous "goalie of the future" for a 3rd round pick. A quick look shows that 2025 is actually pretty ripe for UFA "Andersen-esque" goalies (Saros, Georgiev, Shesterkin, Ullmark, Thompson, Husso, Vanecek, Vejmelka, and others). Most will get re-signed, some will stink in 2 years, etc., but point is, the Canes have been pretty good at finding guys to cobble together an average-to-above-average goaltending corps.
(And also remember that aside from Andersen it's been Mrazek, McElhinney, Ned, Reimer, Raanta, and Kochetkov who've all been quality goaltenders for us with no misses under RBA. Heck, throw Ayres in there
)
From what I saw from Perets, I feel pretty comfortable with Koochi, Perets, Vondras, and the two new Russian prospects. I'd say, for once, we at least have a goalie pipeline....something we thought we had until we didn't.
